Ross Thompson

When Daniel Porter, a quiet data clerk at a Coober Pedy opal company, uncovers a pattern of fraud designed to strip independent miners of their livelihood, he does the one thing his employers never expect. He starts copying documents.. Then Daniel disappears. Melbourne private investigator Jack Calder is drawn north into the vast emptiness of South Australia when Daniel's sister asks him to find out what happened.
What begins as a missing person inquiry soon exposes MineralsAus Solutions, a company using false valuations, rigged grading systems, and intimidation to control the opal trade. In Coober Pedy, accidents are common. Shafts collapse. Machinery fails. Men vanish into the ground without witnesses. And the further Jack digs, the clearer it becomes that MineralsAus Solutions is willing to help bad luck along.
As Calder digs deeper, the heat presses in, the town closes ranks, and the line between misfortune and murder blurs. Under a sky thick with stars and among a community bound by silence and survival, Jack must decide how far he's prepared to go when the truth is buried deep, and the people who want it to stay there have money, muscle, and the desert on their side.